Burnt the christmas cake!

[maggiethecat]

After hours of prep and hours of baking I managed to burn it! Rich fruit cake, started it on 150 C (fan assisted) for first hour then 130 for the next 3.5 hours. I wonder if it has anything to do with fact that I did not line tins with brown paper - used four layers of greaseproof or was oven just too hot?
I've pared the surfaces and am sprinkling liberally with rum and port - any other suggestion for rescuing?

Oh dear, sorry no ideas on how to rescue. I always line the tin with baking paper & wrap in brown paper.

Hmmm, I wonder if that means mine is burnt too? I thought it was just richly dark, but maybe it is horribly burnt???

I want to eat some to see...

I didn't do brown paper thing with mine and only used one layer of greaseproof because this is how I do things - lazily.

Am icing mine tonight and taking as presents on Weds.

Bugger.

not sure what went wrong, but if you've made sure to remove all the burnt bits and use alcohol to make it moist, then i would say it will probably be fine once you've marzipanned and iced it. having said that, this year is the first time i've made a christmas cake so i don't know much about them yet!

I think mine has too much fruit too.

Put lots of icing on and also feed with orange juice as well as alcohol. I've fed mine with an Orange and two satsumas and am hoping they will forgive me - both cakes and family.

ooh bad luck. i remember my mum putting xmas cake in the oven and going out, leaving me and my db with written instructions on how to test it, when to take out of oven etc. she wrote

'if the cake starts to smell really fruity, it is overdone'

helpful!

Hobbgoblin, you'd know if it was burned - I had to chisel the top layer off mine - still cant understand how it happened - and to think that I did not get to bed til 5am bcos of them!